Jessica Ruhfus shares four lessons from No.2 Co’s first Black Friday promotion

SmartCompany readers will recognise Jessica Ruhfus as the founder and CEO of collab app Collabosaurus, but the entrepreneur has another business too: a post-flush perfume drop brand called No.2 Co. 

Ruhfus founded the brand in 2021 and decided to embark on its first Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotion last month. Here’s what she learnt. 

Tackling our first-ever Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) promotion for No.2 Co was definitely an interesting one. I decided to release a limited edition (absolutely adorable) travel-sized ‘mini’ No.2 as a gift with purchase (GWP), running a mixture of email, SMS, organic, and paid ads strategies as a trial to see whether BFCM is something we would continue to do.

I was sceptical, and to be honest, I didn’t really want to participate initially. I knew that slashing prices as a small business is a dangerous tactic if not properly mapped. Also, No.2 is at the higher end of price points for its category – rightly so as it’s handmade in Australia with high-quality ingredients!

I was quite aware of my own spending habits during Black Friday this year, too — shopping various deals from Four Pillars Gin, Ultra Violette Skincare, Showpo and Adore Beauty Group.

So, for No.2 Co we opted for a GWP plus a new product release, focusing our marketing energy on returning customers. 

Here are some takeaways from our best-ever day, best-ever week and best-ever month.

Making the freebies shoppable

I was surprised at how many customers opted to buy our GWP on top of their freebie (one customer bought 15 as gifts for her clients – hello free marketing!).

Avoiding overpriced ads during peak days

We stopped our ads for five days right around BFCM peak days. This opened up more budget to double down when everyone else was taking a breather, and also serve our existing community first.

Focusing on returning customers: the jackpot

It’s hard to win over a cold prospect at the best of times, let alone in a sea of Black Friday offers! Looking at my own spending habits and the performance of No.2’s promotion, a retargeting/returning customer strategy is my personal favourite. This is because:

1. Higher spending: Our loyal customers demonstrated increased average order values (we were feeling the love!). This increased our profitability as well, so the cost of running the promotion was well worth it;
2. Frequent purchases: Existing customers returned to shop more often, shortening the usual purchase cycle and boosting sales frequency; and
3. Gifting = free marketing: Our BFCM promo definitely sparked purchases with gifting in mind. Our customers are our influencers as they gift No.2 to their friends this Christmas!

Next year: timing is everything

Thinking ahead, I’m eyeing a change in our sales calendar. I picked November 22 to December 3 as our window, but BFCM messaging is understandably not cutting through after the weekend. Our ads are back to regular performance, but not worth the cost of the GWP for the last three days of promo — lesson learned!

Jessica Ruhfus is the founder and CEO of Collabosaurus and the founder of No.2.

This article was first published on LinkedIn.